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CFRB's 4 PM News Mess
What a disaster of a newscast - if you can call it that - on CFRB at 4 PM Tuesday.
They played the intro stinger and it ran on and on and on and on with no newscaster. Finally, Nathan Downer's voice faded up, giving the tail end of some headlines which you could barely hear. He was able to throw to traffic and when that ended, the stinger played again.
But no Downer.
The music played on and on again, only to hear Downer's voice in the background saying, "Should I try it again?" But he never got the chance, because they went to an endless bank of commercials as they struggled to get things back on track. The spot load had to be at least 3-4 minutes long, much lengthier than the adjacencies that usually run there.
Finally, Towhey returned and made no mention of the fact there was no newscast during their newscast.
No idea what happened, but I've never heard a disaster quite like it on 1010.
- Mr magoogain
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Re: CFRB's 4 PM News Mess
Magic and memories
Wonders and wishes
It feels like Christmas
- RadioActive
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Re: CFRB's 4 PM News Mess
And at 7 PM, it was AM640's turn. Their news intro played and played and played. But no news appeared. After it went on for at least a minute or more, they finally went to commercials and we never did get any headlines.
But it didn't end there. The traffic intro played, and after a long delay, Richard Martin came on with a 30 sec. report. The music continued and finally faded out. What came next? More commercials.
Then the automation went into overdrive. Minus that brief traffic update, they aired 10 minutes of non-stop spots in a row back-to-back. And with no one left in the station to run anything, it just kept going.
Finally at 7:11 P.M. a reroll of Ben O'Hara Byrne's show mercifully came on. That is without doubt the longest spot break in the history of radio!
Last edited by RadioActive (December 24, 2024 8:13 pm)
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: CFRB's 4 PM News Mess
RadioActive wrote:
Then the automation went into overdrive
The automation did exactly what it was told to.
One of the biggest problems about current staffing levels is the lack experience and knowledge at the execution level. You can keep the veteran journalist and the amazing engineer, but when the one go-to person with the institutional know-how is no longer there, it all goes to hell. It could be a PD, producer, even someone in traffic, but every station has that *one person* who keeps the plates spinning...or used to, at least.
- RadioActive
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Re: CFRB's 4 PM News Mess
I realize that it worked the way it should. But that's how listeners heard 10 solid minutes of spots in a row non-stop. I can't imagine anyone stayed tuned through that. I suppose it's better than dead air, but not by much!
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